Cardiologist helping women lead heart-healthy lives

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Published
5:47 pm CDT, Monday, June 10, 2013

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Cardiologist helping women lead heart-healthy lives

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Dr. Saulette Queen, of Conroe Physician Associates, works to help patients who are living with cardiovascular disease. Often, Queen’s patients are experiencing advanced stages of heart disease and some will not fully recover. Queen’s practice provides care for a growing number of women who are less likely than men to recognize cardiovascular issues.

“It’s a common problem that women often don’t recognize the symptoms of heart disease because women’s symptoms are often unique,” Queen said. “We are so busy juggling everybody else’s activities and caring for those around us that we often overlook early warning signs of cardiovascular disease because we brush them off as something else.”

Queen stresses that women should educate themselves on warning signs of cardiovascular disease and heart attack so that they can share any symptoms or issues with their primary care physician. Subtle changes in health can signal the beginning of problems that, if caught early enough, can be corrected or treated.

Some heart attacks are sudden and intense - the kind of heart attack seen in the movies where a person grabs the chest and falls to the floor - where no one doubts what’s happening. But most heart attacks start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort. Often people affected aren’t sure what’s wrong and wait too long before getting help. Here are signs that can mean a heart attack is happening:

Heart Attack Signs in Women

• Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of your chest. It lasts more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back.

• Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.

• Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.

• Other signs such as breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.

• As with men, women’s most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain.

If you have any of these signs, don’t wait more than five minutes before calling for help. Call 911 and get to a hospital right away.

“I’ve had patients tell me that they just weren’t sure they were having a heart attack and didn’t want to call 911 and bother them needlessly,” Queen said. “When you’re talking about a heart attack, minutes count. Don’t wait. If you suspect a heart attack, call 911 immediately. The emergency responders would rather respond to a false alarm than have a person wait and experience a catastrophic event.”

Queen also advises that because women are often the caregivers in the family, they should educate themselves and their families about living a heart-healthy lifestyle. The following are simple steps recommended by the American Heart Association that anyone can take to prevent cardiovascular disease and heart attack:

• Schedule an appointment with your healthcare provider to learn your personal risk for heart disease. You can learn your risk with the American Heart Association’s Heart Attack Risk Calculator on their website.

• Quit smoking. Did you know that just one year after you quit, you’ll cut your risk of coronary heart disease by 50 percent?

• Start an exercise program. Just walking 30 minutes a day can lower your risk for heart attack and stroke.

• Modify your family’s diet if needed. Check out these healthy cooking tips. You’ll learn smart substitutions, healthy snacking ideas and better prep methods. For example, with poultry, use the leaner light meat (breasts) instead of the fattier dark meat (legs and thighs), and be sure to remove the skin.

• Involve the whole family and help encourage a new generation that will have habits that prohibit cardiovascular disease.

Queen agrees with pediatricians, dieticians and other experts that, rather than the average four to six hours per day, children should be allowed no more than one to two hours of television, computer time and video games per day. The American Heart Association offers these ideas about how to limit your kid’s sedentary time:

• Have a plan. Be prepared to offer alternative activities to TV or video games. You might consider family game night, shooting some hoops, walking the dog or exploring a nearby park.

• Be active with your kids. Experts say that what kids want more than anything else is time with their parents. To give them that, don’t just send them out to play - go play with them!

• Limit tube time. Don’t position your furniture so the TV is the main focus of the room. Remove televisions from bedrooms. And remember to avoid using TV as a reward or punishment.

• Plan TV watching in advance. Go through the TV guide and pick the shows you want to watch. Turn the TV on for those shows and turn it off afterwards. Don’t just watch whatever comes on next.

• Practice what you preach. Your children won’t accept being restricted to two hours of TV watching if you can veg-out for hours. The best way to influence your kids’ behavior is through example.

One of the biggest problems for physicians like Queen is that many people want to portray themselves as fit, healthy individuals - even to their doctor. Patients may know they have a family history of cardiovascular disease and then fail to communicate it to the doctor.

“If you have a history of heart disease in your family, I need to know,” Queen said. “If a patient has a primary relative who has had cardiovascular disease, there are screenings that we can perform to rule out problems even before the patient exhibits symptoms. And, equally important, give your physician an honest assessment of your lifestyle habits such as, ‘Do you smoke?’, ‘Do you drink alcohol and how much?’, ‘What do you eat?’, ‘Do you exercise?’ and ‘How much do you exercise?’ Honest answers to these questions will help me keep you healthy.”

Along with assessing risk factors, regular cardiovascular screening will enable physicians to detect cardiovascular disease in its earliest stages and allow them to intervene. Simple cardiovascular screenings should begin at age 20 with additional screening tests added as a person ages or risk factors change. Ask your physician for a complete list of cardiovascular disease risk factors and recommended screenings or visit the American Heart Association website at www.heart.org for more information.

Conroe Physician Associates

Located on the campus of Conroe Regional Medical Center, the physicians and staff of Conroe Physician Associates, a multi-specialty group, have decades of experience in caring for you and your family. The physicians and staff are committed to delivering compassionate, high-quality comprehensive care to the communities and patients they serve each day. Our practice offers a wide range of procedures and services from various Specialties. For more information, call 936-760-4600 or toll-free 855-616-1442. Also visit us conroephysicianassociates.com.